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corn, and plough it when the grotind was wet, we 

 wniild escape well, it" one half did not rot. 



Wherever cotton is larireiy cultivaled, if is fo 

 ho feared, with every precaution, tiie seed will he 

 p!iij!illy healed, and a sliijiit predisposition to rot 

 produced: it would reipiire, therefore, a tola! ah- 

 seuce ol" exciiiug causes to tola!!}' prevent rot. Ii 

 may, t!iere((.)re, be expected, that we will always 

 iiave a little rot, many of the exciiing causes beiiio; 

 beyond our control ; but as it would require s!ron<r 

 exciting causes to produce much rot when there is 

 little predisposition, and when there were weak 

 exciting causes, the predisposition being weak, v/e 

 woidd nearly, if not entirely escape. Taking all 

 possible precaution, would render what exciting 

 cause we could not control, comparatively harm- 

 less. The strongest exciting cause is the contin- 

 uance ot' wet weather. Last year the rains were 

 uncommonly partial; maiiy plantations and neitrh- 

 borhoods were delufred with repeated rains, while 

 other places almost in sight were suilering for want 

 of rain. Not less partial was the rain than the rot; 

 wherever the plantation or neighborhood was very 

 wou the rot was very bad, and where there was 

 a drought, the cotton very much escaped the rot. 

 This going together of rain and rot, was so com- 

 mon, that all who noticed, must have observed it. 

 The predisposition to rot being nearly alike, the 

 effect of this great exciting cause was very ob- 

 vious; but when there was less predisposition in 

 the seed, although the exciting cause was the 

 same, yet its etiect was obvious. I could give a 

 great many flu-ts in proof of this, a few only v/ill 

 be named. My crop on the river, I observed, was 

 planted from seed with strong predisposition to rot; 

 it rained more there tlian any where in I he neigh- 

 borhood, and my cotton rotted more than any I saw. 

 JNIr. Davis, below me, is a careful planter, and his 

 seed were in a better condition. I was frequently 

 there during the crop season ; I often regretted his 

 fate, his plantation was so dry that it looked like he 

 would make nothing; he howevrr, had late rains, 

 arid he made the best crop of cotton I saw ; he had 

 no rot. But one of my fields where the rot was so 

 very bad, was planted mostlv with seed picked af- 

 ter frost, and which was never in a bulk — this part 

 of the field had no rot. i\ly crop -here was planted 

 with seed that were picked late, ne\'er in a bulk. 

 and constanti}' exposed to sun and air: in this cot- 

 ton I had no rot, it was also very dry, while A'Irs. 

 Nunnelly, two miles from me, saved their seed in 

 n close house and large bulk; they often had show- 

 ers which did not reach me, and the cotton there 

 rotted very bad. I say, not only does repeated 

 rains greatly excite rot, but working the ffround 

 while it is wet adds jrreatly to the evil. On my 

 place, where it was raining every day, I often found 

 fault with my overseer for slopping the ploughs, and 

 several times had them started; but as ihe irround 

 was laid off horizontal and held the water, I had to 

 Btop them until the ijround could dry; these rows 

 that were ploughed when the water would run 

 after the ploughs, could be distino;uished by the 

 rot being worse in them. I went to Mr. Ligon's 

 plantation, and he had very little rot — his overseer 

 showed me a spot of perhaps a half acre, which 

 was rotted very much: this ground was rather 

 hard, and he had it ploutrhed when very wet. I 

 noticed many factsJ in further proof of this. Larire 

 cotton planters in wet seasons are forced to work 

 some of tlieir crop wlien tlie ground is wet, and 



fis plourrhino' over again, as soon as the ground ia 

 dry, considerably counteracts its bad etiects, an 

 excelleul mode of culiivaling cotton is to run only 

 one ILirrowoii each side of tlH> cotton rows, and, per- 

 haps a week alter, runninij a deep large fiirrovv in 

 ihe middles ; this makes one fidl plouiihing liave 

 nearly as good an eli'ect as two |ilougliiugs, and 

 whenever the first ploughing was done in wet 

 we;uher, being careful to run the middle furrow 

 in drv vveather, fills up the furrows, and covers the 

 caked ground vviih dr\' earth, and thereby counter- 

 acts its bad effects. 



If these views are correct, we would have large 

 quantities of cotton seed to spare. Perhaps an in- 

 quiry as to the best use to make of them may not 

 be misplaced. As food, they iiave an injurious ef- 

 fect; an opinion prevails that the fine lint on the 

 seed produces the bad effect, and throwing them 

 in mud, &c., have been tried to prevent it ; this is 

 incorrect. We see a hog does not eat any of it : 

 I bey chew up the seed, and swallow only the nour- 

 ishing part; but they will die from eating them. 

 The fiict is they are of a rich oily nature, and have 

 an injurious etiect on the sionuich ot all animala 

 that eat them — as food, they do more harm than 

 oood. The plan of making oil of them will never 

 answer in a cotton making country ; any person 

 |)ractically acquainted with making oil, will know 

 that it must be a losing business. They are more 

 valuable as a manure as they are now used, than 

 to be made into oil ; but according to the present 

 plan of using them as a manure, fully one half of 

 their value is lost by tlieir being rotted before they 

 are put in the ground. If'they aie put in the ground 

 unrotted, they sprout and lose still more of their 

 value. Whoever will take the trouble to crush a 

 pint of seed, will find they will manure a corn hill 

 more than a quart of rotted seed ; also, rotted seed 

 manures only one year, and crushed, will act as a 

 manure for several years. If cotton seed were 

 passed through rollers and crushed, so that they 

 would not vegetate, it would be the most valuable 

 mode of using them ; but as this would require 

 machinery, the next best mode of using them (and 

 of this I speak practically) is this: a plantation 

 wluch makes fifty bales of cottcn, would have one 

 thousand bushels of seed to spare : furrows should 

 be run, and the seed deeply buried, at the rate of 

 one hundred bushels per acre ; for of all plans of 

 manuring I think best of thinly scattering manure. 

 This land would the first year produce five barrels 

 more to the acre than it would without manure : 

 next year, one-third less, and next year, one-third 

 less, after which, not much ett'ect would be pro- 

 duced. This increase of produce is without ad- 

 ditional labor or expense, arid is clear profit. Rot- 

 ted seed, as a manure, should be valued at thirty 

 cents a bushel ; this is more than they are worth 

 lor oil, food, or any other use that can be made of 

 them. If this seems an over calculation, I will re- 

 late an experiment. I manured one acre of this land 

 with one hundred bushels of seed, and drilled with 

 wheat, and it produced forty-five bushels clean 

 wheat — next year, it made eight barrels of corn 5 

 the acre at the side of it, b}- rough measurement, 

 made four bushels of wdieat, and less than three 

 bushels of corn, so that the seed in two years 

 made about sixty cents per bushel. 



Robert R. Harden, 



